


Industrious and Strong in Work

by 5ofSpades



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Brendol's mom has it goin' on, Commandant Hux on a beach, Community: tfa_kink, Dopheld Mitaka is a cat person, F/M, Fairy Godfather Kylo Ren, Foot Jobs, Force-Sensitive Cats, Han Solo once cheated Hux's grandpa out of fifty thousand credits, Humans are not quite delicious, Hux is a dog person, Hux kissing babies for PR, Hux the Cat, Hux's Hat, Knights of Ren - Freeform, Kylo Ren Smells, Leia Does Not Deserve This Shit, Lingerie, M/M, Mutual pets, Orbital Carpet Bombardment, Other, Rainbow Berry Nutrient Paste Jello, References to Sexual Abuse of a Minor, References to torture and mutilation, Sapir Tea, Someone else got disarmed for once, Space Classism, Tarkins everywhere, The Force Smells, The Republic was blown up by a cat, The story of a cat and her boy, nekomimi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-26 22:42:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6258688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5ofSpades/pseuds/5ofSpades
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Hux - Millicent isn't his cat, he is the cat. Shapeshifter AU.<br/>--------------------------------------------------------</p><p>In which the remnants of the New Republic could not believe their fleets were blown up by a cat.</p><p>And in which:<br/>- Commandant Hux had married a fine cat;<br/>- The First Order was quite the zoo;<br/>- Supreme Leader Snoke was defeated by a cat;<br/>- Kylo Ren slept with Hux but still remained a virgin;<br/>- A Tarkin tried to cheat on taxes with spousal income splitting;<br/>And said Tarkin's Omake that no one asked for, in which there was Space Classism, and an origin story for Hux's Hat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Industrious and Strong in Work

**

When Commandant Hux was still a Lieutenant and assigned to field work, the platoon he was in surveyed an Outer Rim planet.

The planet was called Fora by the locals, and it was lush and warm, deemed a useful exporter of tropical fruits and spices, an asset to the Empire. The animals there held all the colors of light refracted through a prism, the leaves on the trees were dripping verdant green, and the sand upon long beaches was orange red, just like the sunset and clouds above.

And under the sunset, Lieutenant Hux met a girl with eyes that were verdant green, and hair the color of the sand and setting sun.

**

The animals held all the colors of light refracted through a prism. But these colors were not worn to be pleasing to human eyes. These colors were not paint to complete the beauty of paradise.

These were warning colors.

And it wasn’t until later that Lieutenant Hux realized the fair girl he’d taken as wife was a monster.

And it wasn’t until later that the girl realized the charming military man she’d married hid daggers behind his smiles.

The two monsters looked at each other, and thought, alright.

**

Other ladies laughed at Lady Hux behind her back. Barbarian. Outer Rim dweller. A tribal savage uplifted into high society, good for nothing but her looks.

They were no longer laughing when it was her father’s trading fleet, instead of Imperial transports, that had arrived before the New Republic forces on Arkanis, and took the best and brightest of the Academy to the Outer Rims.

**

Commandant Hux lay his weary head on his Lady’s lap as she stroked his greying hair.

Worry not love, I’ll stand by you, she had whispered. The Republic had done nothing for her world. And for good or ill, her people mated for life.

**

When Brendol Hux II was four, his world was turned upside down.

His home was gone.

His father left with other grim faced and stiffly uniformed men. To restore the glory of the Empire, he had said.

His mother held him in her freckled arms, and took him into the trees of her childhood. There, she went onto all fours as a he, and bared his claws and fangs. Together the Lord of the Forest and his cub (it was initially strange, being a girl, but Hux scions were adaptive and resilient) stalked through the woods, a pair of sleek tawny predators.

But hide your fangs love, just as your father hid his edges. It would do you good. It would do you good.

**

Unfortunate then, that with their resources stretched so thin, the years on the new Academy ships so harsh, and the blood of his mother so diluted, that Hux never managed to grow too big. And his mother’s beauty became weakness upon Hux’s boyish frame.

But Hux was vicious and sly. Groups of bullies who tried to corner him alone could never find him. Yet they would soon find themselves alone, and a skinny pale ginger with wild eyes upon them with a bloodied durasteel switchblade and sharp boney knees.

A barbarian just like his mother, the students whispered. Do you not see his icy eyes glow with hellfire in the dark?

The sudden growth in height in his early teens was quite pleasing to Hux. By then, the youth had his own little group as well, vultures and jackals trailing behind an apex predator, begging for scraps.

It was somewhat displeasing, that his other self never quite got that growth spurt.

**

Dopheld Mitaka was soft and weak. And he cried, hiding in a cubicle in the communal refresher on their floor.

Dopheld Mitaka was soft and weak, but he was also obedient, methodological, and meticulous with his work. And he was in Hux’s little pack. He belonged to Hux.

An Academy instructor failed to return during a field training trip. His rotting body was found through the communicator on his belt. Half of his cadaver was already consumed. The other half mutilated and torn beyond visual recognition. Strangely, his genitals were found thirty some meters away from the main trunk, the penis bent in half, the testicles crushed, and the local birds feasting upon the gruesome treat with gusto.

The man’s own fault, for his lack of caution regarding the dangerous local fauna.

Dopheld Mitaka heard the news and laughed. 

Hux licked his chops and picked at his nails. The man’s eyes were so soft and squishy. His throat so tender. His father must be slipping in his old age. Were Hux in charge, he would never let such a disgusting disgrace sully his ranks.

**

Hux took his little pack from the Academy ships to other postings. From mountainous terrains to slushy wetlands, from ocean worlds to lands of fire.

On one such world he met Phasma, a lioness crouched behind heavy armor.

Hux took his expanding pack from ship to ship to bigger ships, until the Supreme Leader himself assigned him to the Finalizer as General, a rank that his father never did manage to achieve.

**

Supreme Leader Snoke smelled of something long dead and rotting.

Hux had told his mother so, under the cover of the trees. She shushed him quickly, but her eyes were bright and shifty.

**

Lady Hux visited her husband after waving off her son.

The Lord of the Forest called on his elders and many brothers.

Slowly but steadily those of Brendol II’s pack who were not on the Finalizer were nudged to other key positions within the military and civilian branches of the First Order.

**

Rumor had it that General Hux could sense your weakness and smell your fear.

**

Rumor had it that General Hux had eyes and ears everywhere. Nothing got past the man.

**

He prowled his domain during day cycles with hair slicked back, uniform well-pressed, and great coat flapping around him. Officers and Stormtroopers alike paid him respect as he strolled down the hallways.

She prowled her domain during night cycles with fur well-groomed, eyes sharp, and ears sharper, her pale whiskers twitching before her. Officer and Stormtroopers alike rarely noticed her as she stalked through the vents and around dark corners.

**

Rumor had it that General Hux kept a cat.

Some say it was a gift from his mother, a small predator from her remote home world. Others say it was just a very large house cat, and was crabby and tabby and shed viciously.

Engineering and sanitation could confirm there indeed was a cat. It kept the ship clean of small pests stowed aboard with supplies and cargo, and left orange hairballs in its wake. The latter was much easier to clean than the former.

FN- 2187 had once managed to stroke its fluffy tail. He got a hiss and a swipe for his troubles, and was reprimanded for carelessly damaging his armor.

Dopheld Mitaka could confirm there indeed was a cat. Her name was Millicent, named after fortitude and industry, virtues of the First Order, and she was ever darling. But even when bribed with extra rations, the Lieutenant would not say if the cat was General Hux’s.

On some night cycles Mitaka would curl up in his tiny officer’s bunk with a data pad held in his hands, and Millicent’s heavy form draped over his lap, purring like a small engine. Sometimes he swore the cat was reading along with him.

**

Unamo was professional and never gave her a second look, trusting her in her duties as a cat aboard the Finalizer just as Hux trusted her as his chief petty officer.

Thanisson was still young, and made toys out of scraps for her when he thought no one was looking.

Mitaka’s lap was the best. She knew the man well, as he knew her well. He left her blue milk, knew exactly where to scratch behind her ears, and told her all the Officer gossips.

Phasma’s bunk was the second best. She respected the Captain, as the Captain tolerated her. Her bunk was nice and snug and warm. The buzzing of the many Stormtroopers so near and so easy to hear.

** 

Kylo Ren was an unwelcomed intruder on the Finalizer. How like Supreme Leader Snoke, to jam his own apprentice like an ill-fitting spanner into an already well-oiled machine.

Hux forced the sneer off his face, and assigned the Knights of Ren’s Master the furthest quarters from the rest of his crew.

**

Millicent snuck into Ren’s quarters, and felt her hackles rise.

The unnatural Force, so unlike the powers of his mother’s people, was thick and choking.

And the corpse within the helmet grimaced upon its pedestal. She swore she could still smell a lingering stench of death and fire and regret.

**

Kylo Ren destroyed non-vital but expensive equipment, again, in his childish fits.

Millicent rubbed her orange hair all over the Knight’s dark robes. Ugh how the robes also smelled. She’d better remind Ren to use the housekeeping droids properly later.

Kylo Ren choked Mitaka and left the man in medical for two days.

Millicent used Ren’s helmet stand as a litterbox.

Hux fumed silently. He wished he was still the wild boy from his Academy days, so he may personally introduce his fists to Ren’s pasty face.

Ah, but a successful predator knew when to shy away from danger, knew when to lie in wait.

**

Kylo Ren was unnerved by the General. His mind was so different. 

You would assume a man like him would have a mindscape that was systematic and organized, with neat logic charts and data sitting in rows. And this was what Kylo initially saw, a neat row house.

But as time went on, and Kylo probed deeper and deeper, he found behind the facade of the row house a winding jungle. Under the shadows of great leaves, thoughts darted shifting and quick, slippery and alert. There was no order, but the natural order called the chaos of life.

Kylo could not get a clear read on the man. Maybe the General had more to him than Kylo had first assumed, more than just a simpering military man promoted beyond his abilities due to nepotism.

**

Long ago on Arkanis, the Inquisitor did not manage to get a clear read on Commandant Hux’s decorative wife either. But he only saw the house with its white picket fence, not the jungle or the beast hidden so expertly behind it.

**

Kylo Ren, no, not Kylo Ren, but something softer within him, something softer and younger yet stronger, tried to leave blue milk for the cat that he knew frequented his quarters.

The milk dish was upturned. The milk untouched. Yet the man kept trying.

**

Leia never did let Ben keep a pet. She was too busy. Ben was too moody and easily distracted and quick to anger with other children. They moved too much.

**

Millicent scoffed at the milk. Who would want to drink milk from such unclean dishes?

But Millicent kept vigil with Kylo Ren one night cycle, when the Knight heaved and cried and tore at his own hair.

And when the man finally calmed down/collapsed, noticed the cat that had so often intruded his quarters, and smiled self-depreciatively at her, Millicent squatted down and kept Ren company, until he finally fell into a fitful sleep.

**

Commandant Hux never did let Brendol keep a pet either. Brendol’s mother tended to eat small animals or kill them for fun.

**

Kylo Ren’s hands were large and clumsy, but his lap was spacious and warm. His beddings smelled a little, but were soft and made a fine nest.

And when Ren finally meditated, the Force around him also calmed and soothed, like water through a clear stream, waves lapping upon orange sand, wind singing through verdant trees. And the stench of it waned from the rot of mass graveyards to the sweet decay of fallen leaves and dead animals upon a forest floor, mixed with the heady smell of pollen and lively beasts. The smell of the endless natural cycle of life, instead of the doom and despair of the Dark.

Millicent kneaded Kylo Ren’s well-muscled back and purred.

**

Mitaka and Phasma were slightly disappointed that Millicent had apparently found herself another favorite sleeping spot.

She was such a fluffy warm furnace and soft hug pillow.

Meanwhile the Master of the Knights of Ren found his sleep cycles much improved.

**

FN- 2187’s betrayal was a blow to Hux’s pride. His father’s program, refined by his very own hands.

FN- 2187’s betrayal was a shock to Millicent. She had never heard a single word of sedition from the unit, and yet…

And Ren. Ren! He knew something was not right. And he informed no one. No one.

**

Nothing went right for Kylo.

First the prisoner, then the droid, then the condescending looks on General Hux’s face.

And even Millicent had abandoned him.

**

Why fire upon the entire system, when they could have easily overwhelmed the Resistance in more traditional ways?

Once was a demonstration. Twice. Twice was somewhat excessive. These were systems rich in resources. Ripe hunting grounds teeming with prey, his mother’s blood sang to him. Business to be done and good credits to be made, his mother’s brothers’ voices echoed in his head.

**

That smuggler Han Solo. That be a resourceful man. He cheated me out of fifty thousand good credits, and outran me four old legs with two. Hux’s maternal grandfather had once said to him.

Hux did not pay that particular story enough attention. He was regretting it deeply now.

**

Hux looked at Ren lying like a deadweight in the snow, and wished his other self was larger like his mother’s.

Just as well, heavy lifting was what Stormtroopers were for.

Hux looked again at Starkiller Base beneath his feet, and felt slightly heartsick. He’d wasted so much time and energy here. He’d even grown a fluffier winter coat for it.

**

Ren made a pitiable figure, pale as the sheet beneath him, his hair a black halo of death around his head, the scent of blood and sickness surrounded him like a shroud.

Hux’s father was stubborn and weak. But Hux’s mother and Hux still loved him dearly.

What would it feel like, to kill your own father? No matter how pathetic he was?

And why order your Knight to focus on killing one smuggler, no matter how resourceful or annoying he was, when the bombs set into the oscillator support struts clearly took precedence?!

** 

Kylo opened his eyes, and saw the silhouette of Millicent curled up on a visitor’s chair.

**

Foxe Tarkin had once passed words to Hux, his dear old Academy Dejarik club buddy, on his very own Knight of Ren, and exactly what he thought Snoke’s training had entailed.

“A full medical team on standby, six tanks of bacta. And two psychiatrists I had to pay for out of my own pocket. My own pocket. And the insurance company refused to cover it, because the patient was not a family member. It was horrible, Hux old chap, horribly expensive. And the worst part? My Knight didn’t even get any stronger. At least I didn’t notice him getting any stronger. All he got were six missing fingers, severe gum infection, and a bad case of claustrophobia! I had to spoon feed him for days.”

**

Kylo Ren was ungraceful, ungrateful, smelly, and a nuisance. Kylo Ren had cost Hux his Starkiller Base, possibly his hard-earned rank, the disappointment of his father, and years of mockery from his mercantile second cousins, cackling hyenas all of them.

But Snoke was delusional, nonsensical, smelled worse, and had set off every instinctual alarm within Hux’s body, from the top of his red haired head to the tip of his tail. Snoke had cost Hux his Starkiller Base, probably would strip him of his hard-earned rank, strip him of his life even. Compared to that, the disappointment of his father and the mockeries of his cousins were minor pains.

And Kylo Ren was in Hux’s pack now. A lumbering great dog who fancied himself a wolf, trailing behind the vultures and lions and jackals.

**

Kylo gaped at General Hux and his menagerie of uncles and cousins up to the n-th degree. He swore Ben Solo’s father (oh how the thought of that man pierced Ben’s heart still) knew some of these men.

“Well Lord Ren, did you think all of my family were born with military uniforms on their backs?” Hux huffed.

**

Kylo gaped at the collection of First Order ships, well over half of the total fleet.

“Ah Lord Kylo Ren, I’ve heard so much about you from Lord Jacen Ren,” Lieutenant General Foxe Tarkin said over the comms. “Oh this coup? Well we’ve been considering it on and off for years now. Jason and his two lovely sisters helped by shielding some of us lesser mortals from otherworldly prying. He never mentioned it to you?”

**

Kylo gaped some more from his position on the floor, a new lightsaber wound in his other side, one eye glued shut with congealed blood, all of his energy spent trying to hold back Snoke’s merciless onslaught on their minds, at the now armless Jacen Ren laying prone under the arc of Snoke’s lightsaber, at the giant cat that had crept behind Snoke and was currently leaping for his shriveled neck.

“Millicent?!”

**

Hux found out ~~Jason~~ Jacen Ren was good as a distraction, even though the man failed and flailed at just about everything else. How had Tarkin gotten saddled with this sad excuse of a Knight anyway? Oh wait, maybe because Tarkin was an opportunistic coward, and didn’t even try to come into Snoke’s inner chamber. In fact he didn’t even land on the planet. Stratospheric support fire. More like stratospheric excuse!

Hux found out Snoke smelled really bad, and tasted even worse. Even his arterial blood stank of death.

Hux found out getting Force-thrown into a wall was most painful. He broke six ribs and a leg.

Comparatively Kylo was actually useful for once. He had managed to drag himself back up with an enraged roar, and finished what Hux had started by decapitating Snoke with one cleaving stroke.

Hux also found out, much later, cradled and bandaged by his fretting mother, whose pearly teeth were still stained with other people’s blood, whose well-manicured nails were still dirty with bits of flesh, that she hadn’t managed to shift into her larger other self either until her darling Lieutenant was in mortal peril.

**

“So you’ve slept on my pillow and peed on my helmet stand,” Kylo Ren pouted accusingly at Grand Admiral Hux.

“Millicent is not exactly the same as myself. You know nothing of the way of shapeshifters, Ren,” Hux growled back, his face flushed full red.

But I am willing to learn, thought Kylo.

But he did not voice that thought out loud. Instead he fought over the pillows and blankets with Hux, and nearly got shoved off the bed for his efforts. The Grand Admiral was a literal animal between the sheets. Millicent had gotten so large. They needed a bigger bed.

**

“So could you be in human form, but keep the ears and tail?”

“Careful Ren.”

**

“So I’ve heard General Tarkin and Jacen Ren had recently underwent the First Order civil bonding ceremony-”

“Two idiot birds of a feather. They either did the galaxy a great service by removing themselves voluntarily from the dating pool, or are planning to commit some form of taxation fraud. Did you want something Lord Ren?”

Kylo looked slightly deflated and dropped the First Order magazine he was holding. Ah, but was that a blush on Hux’s face?

The magazine lay on the floor, flopped open to the fifth page. On it, Tarkin smirked like a fox that had gotten into the hen house, and Jacen’s homely farm boy’s face was split into a wide smile.

**

Commandant Hux retired to his wife’s home planet. His age and injured back finally catching up with him.

The man could often be seen in colorful shirts, lounging under the shade of blue palm trees with his lovely wife, sipping on a blue coconut.

The Lord of the Forest (and of Fora since his return) sometimes brought him dead animals large and small, with their heads bitten off, all lined up in a row on his front steps.

**

The remnants of the New Republic could not believe their fleets were blown up by a cat.

Hux still could not believe the New Republic was actually stupid enough to park most of their forces all within one system.

**

Curled contently around Kylo’s scarred body like a giant fuzz blanket, Millicent purred and dreamt of galactic domination.

**


	2. Omake: Income Splitting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AKA the Tarkin Omake that no one asked for, but got written anyway. The First Order coup against Snoke from lesser people's eyes.

**

Jason, no, Jacen Ren now, was no Lord. He was just a simple farmer’s son, sold by his parents after the land ran dry and the money from selling his sisters ran out. He worked in the mines for a while, saved himself and other slaves from a cave-in, and became feared and hated for it instead of thanked, then this creepy old guy bought him up and trained him in something called the Force. Light side, Dark side, Jacen really didn’t care about either. He was called a freak back at home and later at the mine, and now he was surrounded by other freaks just like himself. He stumbled along trying not to die, and learned how to destroy people with his head instead of raise crops with his hands.

Now High Colonel Tarkin, he was a real Lord. Sure he said he was from a minor offshoot branch of the great Tarkin family, but there was a man who was used to lording over people. He ate with three different forks, never touched nothing without gloves, washed his tea leaves before soaking them, and off-handedly expected everyone to do as he said. Jacen bet he changed his underwear every day too.

Jacen despised and feared men like Lord Tarkin. They used you and put you down and ruined your life, all without a second thought.

**

Foxe Tarkin was always a bit unnerved by Brendol Hux II. Birthed from an unfavorable and sentimental match that suddenly turned into an invaluable alliance after the Empire’s fall, raised by a savage and unconventional mother, the rising star of the Academy, spotless in his service records, the speed of Hux’s promotions were unprecedented. The man was already a Major General commanding one of the newer destroyers at so young an age.

Where Foxe, the middle son of a middle son of yet another inconsequential middle son, was still stuck with a rickety old ship and the rank of High Colonel.

Foxe could not beat Brendol at Dejarik, Foxe could not beat Brendol at marksmanship or hand to hand, Foxe could not beat Brendol in his ranks, and now Foxe was getting a Knight of Ren as an honored guest to lord over him on his own ship, while Brendol was flying free.

**

Instead of a Lord Knight, Foxe got an awkward and brutish country bumpkin.

The man had a square build, a square face, preferred to not wear his mask, and stared at everything with dull gray eyes and a touch of nervousness. His skin was coarse and rough, his stubbles unshaved, his hair the color of dried mud. The lightsaber, that graceful traditional weapon of epic ballads, became more like a club or cleaver in his thick hands.

Where had Snoke found such a creature? How unfair that something of such common stock came to possess a power as great as the Force.

But the Knight was sufficiently effective on the battlefield. His movements may have been stiff and mechanical, his lack of zeal most demotivating, but heads rolled like ripe fruits around him and bodies fell like cut wheat. And the Stormtroopers seemed to like him and looked up to him.

Foxe kept on Brendol’s good side when some of their peers made the huge mistake of ostracizing the Hux heir for his family background and unimpressive looks.

Foxe would keep on this so-called Knight’s good side too. No reason to antagonize someone when you are still unsure of their depths and uses.

**

Jacen prodded clumsily at Lord Tarkin’s mind with a blunt finger, while the High Colonel was asleep.

Tarkin did not like Snoke. Tarkin did not trust Snoke. Tarkin had a group of loose associates who shared the same ideas.

Jacen dipped a dry cracker into the tea Lord Tarkin had given him. Who knew they had something in common?

**

Foxe Tarkin woke up the next day with a brutal headache and the sudden realization that dim as the Knight appeared, some Force users were known mind-readers. He was the first to be assigned a Knight, but soon the others would be saddled with the same, spies and enforcers for the Supreme Leader. Their collective dissatisfaction could be dragged under clear daylight!

He would have to turn the Knight. Either turn him, or get rid of him covertly. A pity, he'd thought they were starting to get along.

**

Foxe Tarkin took an extended leave for family visitation. His poor darling mother was old and infirm (his mother grumbled when she had to leave her sunny vacation with Lady Hux to return home and cover for her useless son. And she was NOT old and infirm. The nerve of that stupid boy).

Jacen kinda missed him. Who was he supposed to eat lunch with now (Jacen realized the High Colonel actually could get down and dirty with his troops during their latest mess of a ground deployment. And when they washed away the grime and blood in a river, Jacen saw that beneath the pressed uniforms and silk bathrobes there was a body just as scarred, and the long-fingered hands under those gloves were calloused and not soft at all. The man could also eat comfortably without any forks, and deal with the same underwear for days on end when forced to).

**

Know thy enemies and know thy friends, so said Foxe’s low-functioning alcoholic of a father in his rare sober moments (he was a decent strategist once, but the fall of the Empire had turned him into the sort of man who named his own child after a small canid by drunkenly flipping through a dictionary at random).

Foxe used his leave time to do some research.

Foxe found Jacen’s father and mother, and realized they were of no use at all. They prized their few livestock over their children.

But they did tell the rich man who bought their vegetables at overcharged prices about all the children they’ve had and sold. Difficult years those were, govern’r. We’ve sent the little ones off with good people, govern’r.

If he really was the governor. Oh if he really was the governor, children would not be bought and sold at all (but repurposing them for the greater good of the galaxy was perfectly justified). In this Foxe firmly agreed with Brendol, that people are base and weak-willed and full of vices, and must be directed with a careful hand and shown the importance of order. The First Order would see to that.

All in all the trip was somewhat disappointing, but not a complete waste.

**

“These people continue to foolishly resist the First Order, even when given the choice of unconditional surrender! We should make an example of them and showcase our military might through orbital carpet bombardment of their major cities!” High Colonel Quel waved his fist at the star map on display.

“Ah excuse me Sir, but I thought we’ve already made an example and showcased the First Order’s military might with the capital city of one of their planets?” Colonel Terrill Jerjerrod pointed at said planet’s sad projection helpfully.

“Do you question the judgement of a superior officer, Colonel?” Quel raised his considerable eyebrows.

High Colonel Tarkin interjected before Quel could pull rank on poor Jerjerrod, “Ah dear High Colonel, I’m afraid I would have to vote against that too. Orbital bombardments are expensive. Carpet orbital bombardments of this scale would put us in the red. We’ve already destroyed most of this system’s military, the people are very much cowed. Let us not draw more attention to ourselves, and provide these people, foolish as they are, some other alternatives, the traditional carrot and stick perhaps, instead of driving them into a dead end. Cornered dogs do tend to bite hard.”

“Spoken like a true accountant instead of a warrior, High Colonel Tarkin.”

“And war is all about resource allocation, my dear friend. Please, allow me to try the gentlemen’s approach once. You can bombard away to your heart’s content if I fail, and buy me a pound of high-mountain Sapir tea if I am successful. Unless, you have not the confidence to be a betting man?” Tarkin raised his own thin eyebrows after taking a sip of the substandard cafeteria tea.

Quel fumed. Toadies of that upstart Hux whelp the lot of them. The only thing they were good at was ganging up on the competition like a pack of wild dogs. But the Tarkin name, even when carried by the middle son of a middle son of yet another inconsequential middle son, still held more weight than a last name like Quel.

**

Jacen Ren stopped High Colonel Tarkin at the caf dispenser, where the latter went to dump out the horrid tea.

“Ah Lord Jacen. You were so quiet during the meeting. Here for some caf as a pick-me-up?” Foxe Tarkin was all smiles.

“I have misjudged you.”

“Excuse me?”

“You tried to spare the people of this system. You are actually an honorable man,” Jacen’s voice shook slightly even through the voice modulator.

“What? Spare the people?” Foxe Tarkin scrunched up his sharp thin face. “No, I am trying to spare our fundings! Do you have any idea how much orbit to ground missiles cost? Every shot from our ventral cannons is a shot of credits. And we are here to procure more resources for the Order, not to waste them. It would be the utmost stupidity to bombard established facilities, priceless historical artefacts that we can sell, free labor, and potential Stormtroopers! The Resistance has the Republic’s money, and we get nothing. I would like to have a newer ship sometime this century.”

Tarkin put down his dirty cup for other people to wash, and turned his full attention on Jacen, “Oh and Lord Jacen, please go put on your full armor sometime in the next hour. I am going to hail the local politicians, hopefully for a more face to face audience, where you are going to stand behind me, look scary, and Force choke some people. Intimidation is a very viable negotiation tool.”

Jacen was so disappointed.

**

The siege of Omm was a resounding success.

The follow up negotiations saw the system’s incorporation into the First Order completely.

Foxe Tarkin still didn’t get his new ship, or a promotion, or even a commendation. Life was so unfair.

High Colonel Quel got him the wrong tea.

**

How unfortunate, High Colonel Tarkin, that some amongst our current leadership mistake efficiency for mercy, and mercy for weakness.

So said Hux to his old Dejarik partner over a distant maternal uncle’s private comm line.

Foxe fumed and cursed the old coots in high command with Brendol. Ah but at least Brendol shared his refined taste and sent him the good stuff, half a pound of platinum grade high-mountain Sapir tea.

(Hux hated Sapir tea. But a Tarkin middle son was a useful ally to have for both an influential name, and the predictable thirst for recognition.)

**

High Colonel Tarkin left his XO in charge, and flounced off on leave again for a tea convention.

No wonder he was stuck as a High Colonel for so many years. The man had no work ethic.

**

Foxe Tarkin booked a private conference with Jacen Ren, one week after the former’s tardy return to his rickety old Imperial-class star destroyer.

Jacen walked into the High Colonel’s private office, and saw Foxe Tarkin in his usual seat.

Sitting at Foxe’s left was a plain looking young woman in a plain white dress. Despite being fed and groomed and given several full physical check-ups over the week, her cheeks were still gaunt, her grey eyes full of anxiety, her mud colored hair carefully braided but dry as straw. And when she opened her mouth no words came out, for her tongue was gone.

Yet she was so loud, that even Foxe had heard her in his head.

“Jason!” the girl cried over the Force.

Foxe had never really quite felt comfortable watching a grown man cry, or family members who cared for and cherished each other for that matter. He stood up to make tea instead. The convention was great for a cover story and for restocking his collection.

**

“Well your other sister is safely with Colonel Jerjerrod at the moment. He was gracious enough to rendezvous with us and host us after our narrow escape from the Hutt. Her condition was less stable, and the medical staff deemed it unwise for her to travel again with so little rest. Of course, as soon as she is feeling better, you three would be without a doubt reunited, dear Jacen,” said Foxe Tarkin, his voice full of sympathy, as his hands busied themselves with the steeping of more tea for his guests.

“I was wrong about you. You are a kind man and a fair leader! Lord Tarkin, how could we ever hope to repay this kindness?!” Jacen Ren went down to his knees before his Lord, with his sister quickly following his example. Their homely faces were open and servile, their gray eyes shining with tears and joy.

**

Ah, how fortunate that Jacen Ren was such a simple and straightforward man, trained to bow down to others since birth, with all of his ambitions grinded out of him by the misfortunes of life. Foxe did so loathe the idea of having to use the other sister as leverage.

**

Jacen was mediocre at everything when compared with his fellow Knights, from mind-reading (Tarkin thanked all the stars) to premonitions to combat. But he was steady, knew his own limits, recognized his betters, and had a really thick mental shield that he could extend to others.

The sisters were useless in combat, telekinesis, visions, etc. etc., their spirits long broken.

But they also had thick mental shields, and could imbue objects with partial Force resistance for periods of time. They completely flew under Snoke’s radar.

Foxe silently thanked Grand Moff Tarkin and the spirit of Darth Vader for such a stroke of dumb luck.

Foxe thought this Force thing made absolutely no sense. Why would little parasites give select people random superpowers?

Foxe also wished they had more surviving records on Sith training, Jedi training. Any Force training really. He wasn’t picky.

Foxe’s palate got pickier though. Jacen’s sisters were excellent cooks. 

**

When Hux was elevated to the rank of General, and given command of the Finalizer, he received a gift from Brigadier Tarkin.

It was a standard First Order officer’s hat. It didn’t look different than any other hats.

But it smelled different. Very different.

Along with the hat there was a scented card, and it read:

“Specially treated by a pair of very lovely ladies, good for keeping pests away from one’s head. We’ll send you another one in half a year. Congratulations General Brendol Hux.”

Hux scoffed. Tarkin was trying to curry favors with him again. Better accept this gift with grace. No need to let the other man know Hux never required any help with keeping Force users out of his deeper thoughts.

Ah but this would be very useful for the other members of his little pack. Very useful indeed. He was right in recruiting this particular little fox into his pack.

**

Jacen Ren returned from his mission, shed his armor for a quick sonic shower, put on his casual clothing, and sat down for tea and scotch with Brigadier Tarkin. Halfway into his cups, he rubbed his reddened nose and started to complain about the newest Knight recruits, complain about Snoke and his sadistic ways, and complain about Master Kylo Ren, the spoiled child, the entitled princeling.

Foxe Tarkin hmm’ed and nodded at all the right places and patted the Knight’s arm in a show of sympathy and solidarity. Jacen always had interesting information whenever he returned from his masters.

Foxe Tarkin also made a note to schedule a mandatory medbay visit for the Knight. For all his complaints, the man was neglecting his new scars and slight limp.

Jacen scarfed down all of Foxe’s imported tea biscuits, fell asleep on Foxe’s clean couch, snored and drooled like a large tauntaun, and completely ignored the medbay appointment.

**

When Kylo Ren, Master of the Knights of Ren, was assigned co-commandership of the Finalizer, Foxe Tarkin felt a great sense of schadenfreude.

Dearest Brendol with your unfairly charmed life, feel the pain felt by the rest of us mortal beings!

**

Two nondescript young women rotated between certain First Order ships as a part of the cafeteria staff. Their records stated they were properly vetted, registered, and trained as support staff. They kept their heads low and interactions brief and professional.

More often than not, you could find one of them on a ship hosting a Knight of Ren. But no one bothered to make note of that.

**

When Foxe Tarkin was finally promoted to Lieutenant General and given a newer ship, Jacen Ren was recalled by Snoke to complete his training.

Tarkin was slightly miffed. He had so gotten used to having a Force user on-hand to deploy with the ground troops.

**

The sisters cried in their strange broken voices and screamed in their minds as they counted the fingers on their Jason’s hands again and again.

Foxe typed out the order for six prosthetic fingers (medical would not be cutting off those hands for lower costs and easier operations), a full dental health checkup, another tank of bacta, and felt so, so tired.

Foxe also made an inquiry to his mother, for her recommendation of discrete and competent civilian psychiatrists. Jacen’s reaction upon waking up in a bacta tank was extremely unfavorable, and Foxe had served with enough troops to recognize the signs of trauma and a developing phobia. An unstable Force user was a danger on any ship.

How frustrating that he could not use the Order’s psychiatrists for the treatments he was looking for. It would show too much care. Snoke might take notice. Kriff it all, there was no way his private insurance would cover this.

**

“I refused to kill them, so he took my fingers, one for each life spared.”

“Refused to kill? From the Butcher of Seregar? That’s a new one.”

“The new Knight trainees. One of them was my baby brother.”

“Oh.”

“I still killed them all in the end. He did things to me. My mental shield was breaking apart. He would not have spared my brother. Then he would know, and come after my sisters. Come after you. The Supreme Leader said my training was now as complete as it could get. I’ve never asked for this. Any of this.”

Foxe didn’t know what to say to that. He looked down at the nutrient paste jello he was holding. For some reason he didn’t think Jacen would have the appetite for even one spoonful at the moment, even if it was in his favorite rainbow berry flavor.

And look, the cup was shaking. Why was it shaking? Ah, because Foxe’s hands were shaking. When was the last time he had felt this angry? 

**

The Knight often assigned to Colonel Jerjerrod’s ship never came back from her training. A failure, Supreme Leader Snoke had called her, and promptly assigned another in her place.

Terrill Jerjerrod looked at the security feed connected directly to the private refresher of the new Knight, and saw a young and frightened face.

**

Were all the Knights truly loyal to Snoke?

After all, Jacen Ren once thought most of the military were loyal to Snoke (you may have the Force. You may run and try to hide. But you are just one man, one against the might of a relentless army).

**

Jacen Ren lost his hands in the end anyway, despite Foxe’s efforts.

But it was a miracle that Jacen was even alive. Eight Knights and Knight-apprentices joined in the coup, and only two survived the conflict. The other one was the ever powerful Kylo Ren.

Foxe couldn’t even get mad at Brendol for hiding the fact that he was a magical cat for all these years.

(And Foxe was providing legitimate stratospheric support fire! The Resistance recon ship and several Snoke loyalists showed up at the end and made a nuisance of themselves, did they not?)

**

Foxe’s father wasn’t sure whether he should praise his son for securing the service and loyalty of three Force users instrumental in the coup that had redefined First Order leadership (from a half dead mystic to a cat), or disown him for rejecting all the painstakingly selected potential brides to throw himself at a cripple who was both low in birth and poor in pedigree.

Foxe smiled winningly at his father and brothers, and handed his father a spiked punch.

The Foxe Tarkin household went down two income tax brackets (and all expenses incurred by Jacen Ren were claimed as reimbursable operating expenses).

**

Kylo Ren looked across the dining halls at Governor Foxe Tarkin and his bodyguard/civil partner, who were busy spoon feeding each other mousse cake in a sickeningly saccharine display of public affection, during a semi-formal First Order function no less.

Why won’t Hux feed him? Kylo hand fed Millicent plenty of times. Where was the reciprocality? And Hux must have been wrong. There was no way Tarkin entered this civil partnership just for tax benefits. Well just look at those two. Hmm, tax benefits…

…wait! If Tarkin went down two tax brackets after income splitting, then that means… 

“Grand Admiral, it has just come to my attention that for all my years of service to the First Order, I was never financially compensated,” Kylo Ren turned to Hux.

“Major Mitaka?” Hux ignored Ren completely and beckoned to one of his most loyal minions instead.

“Yes Sir, Grand Admiral Sir.”

“Please read out-loud the list of repair and personnel healthcare and compensation bills incurred by Lord Kylo Ren, First Knight of the First Order, Master of the New Knights of Ren, and Companion to Millicent of Fora, starting from the time of his initial stay on the Finalizer and ongoing.”

“With pleasure Sir!” Mitaka’s smile was positively radiant.

“Hux!” Kylo yelled, a touch of mortification on his long face.

“Ren,” replied Hux in a particularly haughty and condescending tone.

** 

Jacen Ren’s two sisters, heroes of the First Order independence movement, married First Order civil servants personally vetted by Foxe Tarkin, and settled down to modest but comfortable lives. Grand Admiral Hux was already inquiring about any potentially Force-sensitive children and the parents’ interest in apprenticing them as future Knights of Ren.

Jacen Ren gave up his Knighthood and title, citing health reasons, and happily took back his own name.

Foxe Tarkin became the Governor of a First Order controlled system, just like he’d always wanted. Jason was pleased to find the head government offices and the Governor’s estate were located on his home planet. Lord Tarkin was finally a Lord for real.

The man now ate with six different forks, owned gloves and cloaks for every occasion, and still washed his tea leaves before soaking them. He also still changed his underwear every day, and now sometimes again in the evenings. Jason usually helped him pick out the evening underwear.

Child trafficking was banned in the system. Hutt presence was nearly eradicated after several very aggressive campaigns led by the Governor and his bodyguard. Although it would take state subsidized child benefits, improved living standards (they complained when they have to pay tax, but never thought about where all the new roads, irrigation systems, and public spaceports came from, peasants all of them), and at least two generations of education and strict law enforcement for the practice to abate for real.

The system also boasted one of the most successful mandatory early Stormtrooper enrollment programs. Now instead of new hats, Foxe sent Brendol new troops every year. He was proud to be able to provide the First Order with so many well-trained soldiers. 

And the First Order would maintain peace and spread prosperity and stability across the whole galaxy, by right and might and deadly force if necessary.

**


	3. Omake Flipside: A Cat is Fine Too

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _His nephew was in a relationship with a sociopathic mass murderer, a sociopathic mass murderer who was also a cat._
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _Comparatively, secretly marrying a former Queen of Naboo while under a celibacy oath or accidentally kissing your own sister seemed so much tamer._  
> 

**

After reports of the sudden congregation of at least over half of the First Order fleet, Leia felt a rebalancing of the Force, where one light devouring black hole had disappeared, and a new unstable star was born. The recon ship sent to tail and investigate the First Order fleet never came back.

When General Hux announced the death of former First Order Supreme Leader Snoke, made himself Grand Admiral, and promised peace and order to all the galaxy in a broadcast so far-reaching, that even Luke and Rey had seen it live at the small outpost they were weathering in, Luke Skywalker felt a minute shift in the Force, as if the undetermined future had just changed again.

The Fora-based Wild Space Trading Guild rose in prominence, their merchant fleet, a gluttonous and covetous swarm of fangs and claws sympathetic to ex-Imperial families and the First Order, spread across the Outer Rims and forayed into Mid Rim territories. Chewbacca still remembered fleeing the vicious beasts released by their last late guild master, after Han Solo (dear Han Solo, most beloved friend, whose murder Chewbacca could never avenge) had stiffed the ill-tempered redhead fifty thousand credits in a deal gone bad.

**

Rumor had it that Kylo Ren, Master of the New Knights of Ren, had developed the power to control beasts of the wild. Perhaps it was the Force. Perhaps he learnt it from the natives of Fora, who boasted the ability to whisper to animals large and small. He could sometimes be seen in the company of a large orange wildcat the size of a mountain lion, both man and beast completely at ease with one another.

**

“Millicent?! That’s Millicent! She’s Finalizer’s mouser. How? What have they been feeding her? Is this some sort First Order science experiment?” Finn pointed at the flat-holo a brave Resistance spy had managed to snap of Kylo Ren and the giant cat.

Poe Dameron looked at the image of the much feared and loathed Kylo Ren feeding salmon to the cat mouth to mouth, and wondered if the awkward boy who had once peeked shyly from behind his mother’s skirt, and played Pilot and Smuggler with Poe was truly gone.

**

“The cat is Grand Admiral Hux,” Rey said, clutching her bleeding arm.

“What? That can’t be right? Rey, you’d better lie down, you’ve lost a lot of blood,” Finn fretted.

“No, Grand Admiral Hux is the cat, the one you call Millicent. I almost had Ren, then Hux was suddenly this giant orange cat. He is the one that nearly took off my arm,” Rey’s face was as serious as her voice was still frim.

“What?!”

**

Luke Skywalker thought his nephew made terrible life choices and had equally terrible taste in romantic partners, when he caught an eyeful of Ben, no Kylo Ren now, kissing Grand Admiral Starkiller in the middle of a battle.

Luke Skywalker didn’t know what to think anymore, when he later saw said Grand Admiral transform into a cat.

His nephew was in a relationship with a sociopathic mass murderer, a sociopathic mass murderer who was also a cat.

Comparatively, secretly marrying a former Queen of Naboo while under a celibacy oath or accidentally kissing your own sister seemed so much tamer.

**

Leia pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration over the latest reports.

The First Order was completely ok with following the orders of a cat (considering their last Supreme Leader, Leia wondered why she was initially surprised).

The First Order had somehow gotten more effective under the leadership of a cat.

The First Order was actually actively trying to fix the Outer Rim worlds under the directives of a cat (a Tarkin of all people was lauded for good governance and trying to bridge class gaps).

And said cat’s mother, who was an even larger cat, had just invited Leia to a friendly diplomatic dinner over neutral grounds. For the parents to get to know one another better, she had purred, before their darling boys’ public engagement. Any good mother would be supportive when her child had finally found the courage to fall in love.

**


	4. Omake: Snippets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slice of life stories of evil space mass-murder dictator cat + friends and family.

***** Mirrors *****

Hux had never trusted Foxe Tarkin fully. The man was a sly fox, a sniveling weasel, an opportunistic and self-serving coward, and Hux saw an unflattering shadow of himself in his old Dejarik club mate and co-conspirator. But Tarkin did keep himself a useful and affable sniveling weasel, so he became one of the few officers with whom Hux had somewhat regularly exchanged correspondences and gifts with.

The latest gift from the Grand Admiral to Foxe Tarkin was the authorization and funding for the campaign to take over Jacen Ren’s home system. The whole system would be a wedding gift for the couple, if the man was successful.

And Hux knew they would be successful. Just as Hux knew they would make the vast, resource-rich, yet under-developed and lawless system one of the crowning jewels of the First Order, for never underestimate the might of motivated men.

*

Kylo Ren had never paid much attention to Jacen Ren. The man was a lumbering ox, a dim-witted bantha, a silent and obedient tool with few thoughts of his own, yet Kylo felt a silent condemnation every time Jacen’s helmeted head turned his way. Judging, watching, finding something in Kylo disappointing and wanting always. But Jacen was so mediocre, of so little threat, and later of little contact as well after his deployment to serve with an equally mediocre-seeming Tarkin, that Kylo had promptly forgot about him. 

Kylo remembered Jacen now, the last Knight left standing beside him against Snoke, the sprays of blood as he sacrificed his arms to shield Kylo (without their most powerful Force user the coup would fail, and if the coup failed then…), the distraction that had lowered Snoke’s guard in a moment of bloodlust for Hux to shift, and Millicent to strike.

And Kylo felt a slight hint of jealousy when he saw the civil bonding ceremony announcement between Jacen and his General. And Kylo was beside himself with envy, when Jacen Ren became Jason again, happy and at peace and content, whereas Kylo Ren could never again be Ben Solo.

*** ☆☆☆ ***

  


***** Consummation *****

“Lord Tarkin, General, Sir, I understand if you wish for me to retire to my own quarters…” Jacen Ren looked up at Lord Tarkin’s finery and heirloom jewels, looked down at his own ratty armor, his mechanical hands, and felt immensely inadequate. The day went by like a dream (especially when Lord Tarkin had kissed him for punching Lord Tarkin’s second oldest brother in the kidney), but all dreams must end.

“Don’t you mean for us to retire to our quarters, dear Jason?” Foxe Tarkin lifted Jacen’s head with a well-manicured (yet still calloused) finger, and smirked at the stuttering Knight in a most predatory manner. “After all, mine is an old family steeped in traditions, and tradition dictates that civil unions are not finalized without thorough consummation.”

*

Jason stared as Lord Tarkin slid down his dress pants to expose something white, lacey, and very, very frilly underneath, and felt a rush of blood dribble out of his nose the same time another rush of blood headed in a decidedly more southern direction.

His uncle Mayhue was right. All those prim and proper lords and ladies were degenerate perverts underneath. Degenerate perverts.

*** ☆☆☆ ***

  


***** Beasts *****

Governor Foxe Tarkin moaned and canted his hips for a better angle. Those prosthetic hands were no more graceful than the originals. There would be handprints purpling his waist and thighs come morning.

Behind him Jason huffed hot puffs of air near Foxe’s ears, and rutted like a space water buffalo in the height of mating season. His meaty hips pistoned with a strong steady pace, unimaginative but focused in sex as he was in everything else.

And it was with this focus that Jacen Ren, a Knight of Ren, had once massacred the entire spaceport of Seregar with only half a platoon of Stormtroopers and two TIE fighters as backup.

And it was with this steadiness that Jason, civil partner and personal bodyguard of Governor Tarkin, had hacked the Hutt slave trafficking rings apart.

Foxe felt Jason’s large blunt cockhead hammer at his prostate again and again, bit his silk pillow (locally made with 100% locally produced grass worm silk, a revitalized export industry under his three-stage economic directives), and dribbled onto the already significant wet spot beneath himself. Looked like dear Jason was intent on making him come dry again tonight.

And his father and fool brothers had thought they could ‘correct’ his private habits and tie him down with a blushing (manipulative) bride of their choosing. What hothouse-raised flower, no matter how poisonous, could give him this? Could supplement his own cunning with power beyond nature, and offer him absolute and unquestionable fealty and obedience.

*

Jason looked up at his Lord from his position on his back. Lord Tarkin looked really fetching tonight with a heated blush coloring his sharp Tarkin cheeks and an indecent red little strip of silk barely preserving his modesty (what modesty?). He itched to reach out and tear the silk away, to see if the slim long cock underneath was just as flushed with color, but his arms were on the table across the room.

Hux had once likened Jacen Ren to a large herbivore that had the misfortune to be misplaced with a pack of hunters and scavengers. Foxe Tarkin looked down at Jason, prosthetics removed and helpless (not quite, not with those soldier’s legs, not with the Force) on the bed, and could not have agreed more.

Jason’s whole body shuddered when Foxe smiled a smile that was all teeth, and brought down his stockinged foot to rub slowly but firmly at the bulge growing in Jason’s no-longer-so-clean underwear.

Jason may have been a bit on the unimaginative side, but Foxe Tarkin had plenty creativity to spare.

*

Hux mewled as Kylo rubbed at the root of his fluffy and velvety ears, well, technically, Millicent’s ears.

Kylo doubled his efforts in both the ear rubbing and the hand-job he was giving the Grand Admiral. An orange tail tip twitched in his peripheral vision.

Hux showed his approval by purring loudly.

Then with a sudden shift in the Force, Kylo was crushed under a giant orange cat instead of holding an enthusiastic man in his lap.

Operation cat-ears was a complete failure.

*** ☆☆☆ ***

  


***** Parenthood *****

Princess Leia had almost considered accepting Lady Hux’s dinner invitation. How was her son doing? Was he healthy? Was he happy? Did he finally find a family that would not shrink back in trepidation at his darkness and violent tendencies?

General Organa didn’t even consider falling for such an obvious trap.

Leia Organa never showed up. 

Lady Hux was so disappointed. With a mama like that, no wonder the poor boy ran away from home.

Ex-Commandant Hux was also slightly disappointed. Ah well, the General of the Resistance wouldn't be this easy to catch off-guard.

The Lord of the Forest stalked away from his position in the shadows. The Ex-Commandant ordered his private transport to pick up his wife and her/his squad from the safety of a starship bridge. The two actors hired to sit in as happy prospective in-laws were paid handsomely.

Now they would have to find another wedding present for their darling boy.

*

The sentimental part of Ben Solo was sad for days. The irrational aspect of Kylo Ren simply got angrier.

*

Cold and distant Organa, detached and pragmatic Organa. A wife who had failed her husband. A mother who had failed her son. She didn’t even show any care for her own child’s marriage, the very child that she had neglected and pushed to the Dark. The woman was Vader’s daughter after all.

So spread the rumors instigated by the Wild Space Trading Guild’s far-reaching fleet.

*

Foxe Tarkin’s father died of alcohol poisoning around the same time Jason’s parents died of lung infection and old age.

Neither son found it in himself to care much.

*

Foxe’s older (much older) distant cousin became the head of the Tarkin household. But everyone knew which way the Grand Admiral’s favors fell, and where all the real power was.

Jason’s sisters gave him an adorable nephew and niece each. Grand Admiral Hux kissed them on the cheeks for publicity. Lord Kylo Ren picked up both babies and proclaimed their glorious destinies in service to the Dark.

(The brats also pulled on Millicent’s tail without getting swiped. The giant cat simply flopped down and looked disinterested as the tiny human spawns climbed all over her. Foxe swore he almost had a heart-attack.)

*** ☆☆☆ ***


End file.
